WeThinkCode has partnered with some of South Africa’s most recognisable businesses, to place over 400 students as ICT interns during their work placement period.
The software developer training academy has collaborated with the likes of Momentum Metropolitan, Outsurance, BBD, BCX, FNB, StructureIT, DealX, MediClinic and Old Mutual to launch the Job Placement Drive – a platform that seeks to connect SMEs and corporations with unemployed youth.
The initiative enables the academy to provide a reliable pipeline of tech talent to businesses facing challenges with ICT skills shortages and struggling to access talent from traditional channels.
The annual placement initiative, which starts this month, kicked off with a Partner Expo Week last week, to call on all businesses looking for tech talent to engage with potential candidates.
Each year, WeThinkCode trains hundreds of talented young South Africans to become highly-skilled software developers in a two-year programme.
The course provides digital skills, including fundamental programming knowledge and practical software development experience in Python; software engineering practices, such as unit testing; and test-driven development and exposure to the Java ecosystem and object-oriented design.
According to the organisation, this year, 425 students will go through the matching process to find suitable job placements within South African corporations and SMEs in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.
“We are delighted that so many of our business partners have made repeat recruitments from our student body,” says Nyari Samushonga, CEO of WeThinkCode.
“Their confidence in the quality of our students and the effectiveness of our home-grown curriculum motivates us to go to great lengths to recruit exceptional talent from communities that are not usually associated with software developer pipelines.”
WeThinkCode was launched locally in 2015 and welcomed its first coding students in May 2016.
The academy says it seeks to eliminate the digital skills shortage by developing 100 000 coders in Africa over the next 10 years.
To date, the organisation says over 700 young people have graduated and maintain a 90% permanent placement rate post-graduation.
“The Job Placement Drive is a win-win for both the SMEs, which need additional resources for their digital projects, and the students, who need vital on-the-job experience,” adds Samushonga.
“In the context of South Africa’s current 63.5% youth unemployment rate and the local tech skills shortage, WeThinkCode acts as a bridge between talented young people and the economy.”
For more information on partnering with WeThinkCode and to apply to join the Job Placement Drive, visit the WeThinkCode website.
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